Governor's papers and private papers of Samuel Whitaker Pennypacker (b. 1843,
d. 1916) who served as governor of Pennsylvania from 1903-1907. A prominent
Philadelphia lawyer, judge, and president of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania
from 1900 to 1916, Pennypacker authored more than fifty books and publications
including Settlement of Germantown and The Autobiography of a Pennsylvanian.
Born in Phoenixville, Chester County, on April 9, 1843, he was descended from
Hendrick Pannybakker, a Dutch émigré who was a surveyor for William
Penn. His grandfather, Mathias Pennypacker, served as a member of the General
Assembly and president of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad and helped write
the state Constitution of 1837. His father, Isaac Pennypacker, was the first
burgess of Phoenixville and held a professorship at the Philadelphia Medical
College. His mother, Anna Marie Whitaker, came from a family that owned a local
ironworks.

In 1862 Pennypacker taught in a one-room schoolhouse in Mont Clare, Montgomery
County and in 1863 he enlisted in Company F of Pottstown, 26th Pennsylvania
Emergency Regiment during General E. Lee's invasion of Pennsylvania. In 1865
he earned his bachelor of laws degree at the University of Pennsylvania and
established his own law practice. In 1866 he was elected president of the Bancroft
Literary Union and in 1868 was chosen president of the Law Academy of Philadelphia.
In 1886 he was appointed to the Philadelphia Board of Education, admitted to
the bar of the Supreme Court of the United States in 1887 and in 1889 Governor
Beaver appointed him judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia. He
became president judge in 1897 and was reelected in 1899. During his presidency
of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania from 1900 he wrote prolifically on
early local and state history, English common law, the Supreme Court, genealogical
topics, and did several biographies. He also amassed more than ten thousand
volumes in his personal library and self-mastered Latin, French, Greek, Italian,
and Dutch. His polished intellect, public experience, and the fact that his
cousin was U. S. Senator Matthew Quay, made him one of the most powerful Republicans
in Pennsylvania.

In 1902, Pennypacker defeated John P. Elkin, the Republican state attorney
general, for the gubernatorial nomination. The Quay and Boies Penrose political
machine were accused of buying votes from Elkin supporters, which they denied.
In the general election, Robert Pattison, the only Democrat to serve as governor
between the Civil War and 1935, sought a third non-successive term after serving
1883-1887 and 1891-1895. Pennypacker, however, picked up the endorsements of
veterans, agricultural interests, the popular former governor and Civil War
hero James Beaver, and President Theodore Roosevelt, who publicly proclaimed
that Pennypacker's defeat would be a "national calamity."

Easily defeating Pattison in the general election, during his tenure he signed
into law the Child Labor Act of 1905 that set the minimum age for factory and
mine work at fourteen and prohibited most night work. Governor Pennypacker also
created the Pennsylvania State Police that quickly earned a reputation for efficiency
and integrity, even drawing public acclamations from President Theodore Roosevelt.
An ardent conservationist, Pennypacker appointed Joseph Trimble Rothrock as
the first commissioner of forestry and as a result of his efforts, half a million
acres of land were preserved, twelve thousand acres was set aside for use as
game land, tree nurseries were established, and the first school for state foresters
was opened at Mont Alto, Franklin County. In 1903 Governor Pennypacker signed
legslation creating the Division of Public Records in the State Library and
in 1905 also signed legislation authorizing the creation of a State Museum to
house the accumulated artistic, historical, and natural treasures of the state.
In addition, during his tenure Pennsylvania levied new taxes on out-of-state
corporations that mined and exported Pennsylvania coal. This increased tax revenue
financed eight thousand miles of paved roads in the state.